A Whiter Shade of Brown

Nikki Haley would not be the first desi in America who wants to be seen as white.

August 10, 2011 at 9:24 PM

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Nikki Haley is fending off charges that she represented herself as White in her driver's license application.

Nikki Haley, South Carolina Indian American governor listed her race as white on her voter registration form. The State Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian has seized on the misrepresentation, saying "She can't even tell the truth about her racial heritage."

Sandip Roy writes in the First Post: "She converted to Christianity like her fellow conservative Indian American governor, Bobby Jindal. And thanks to marriage, she was even able to jettison that funny-sounding last name Randhawa.... The joke is really on the Indian Americans who were besides themselves with joy at seeing another brown face in high office and gave her a pass on her politics."

I am not sure what great benefit she derived from ticking "white" on the voter registration form. I don't think it entitled her to shorter lines or better bathrooms — since those "whites only" days are mercifully behind us. But to be fair to Haley, young Indian American politicians, Republicans and Democrats, have all run from their ethnicity, emphasising their love for pizza and American football and opposition to outsourcing. And in a state where politics has long been defined by black and white race relations, Haley's never acted anything but "white"